PATNA: Chief minister Nitish Kumar has suggested the monitoring of government projects in rural areas by the Vasudha e-Seva Kendra or Common Service Centre (CSC). He said it will help the government and also the people and the viability of Vasudha, a private-public partnership, will also be enhanced.
He was speaking here on Tuesday after inaugurating the first ever e-Seva Kendra at Panapur through video conferencing. “This system could serve as third party inspection or independent information channel. It will also be a source of information as well as a channel of development,” he said, recalling that when he took over nearly three years back there was nothing in the state in the name of information technology.
Set up under the National e-Governance Plan by SREI-Sahaj, which promotes rural enterpreneurship, nearly 25,000 CSCs would be set up in six states, including Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. In Bihar’s 27 districts, 5,540 CSCs will be opened.
Nitish said the CSCs will supply rural people information regarding weather and prices of the commodities. He said it is his thinking that the monitoring of government projects like school building, roads, health sub-centres, Indira Awas, NREGA and MPLAD could be done by these centres.
Deputy CM Sushil Kumar Modi said it is a pleasant surprise that in such a short period the e-centre has been opened. He said the finance department has bid adieu to the paper file and now all the new files are opened on computer. This practice will be emulated in other department soon. Also the e-tendering and e-contract system has also been introduced.
Former SEBI chief M Damodran said the 25,000 CSCs will cover 21 crore rural population and will help give people technology and confidence. Punjab National Bank CMD K C Chakraborty said this is a self-employment scheme and PNB apart from financial assistance to CSCs will also provide banking service through them. He said PNB has 800 branches in Bihar and its reach will be further extended through these e-service kendras.
The Times of India
